Add a Mediterranean taste to recipes by substituting fresh bay leaves for dried

Dear Lynne: I just picked up a bay tree in a pot at my farmers market. The leaves are beautiful and intensely fragrant — nothing like the dried ones I've purchased in the past. Can you give me an idea of what to do with them?

— Oliver

Dear Oliver: Take a leaf, break it in half and inhale. This is not like the dried bay leaves that have been on your grandmother's shelf for years. Imagine first rubbing a piece of fish or chicken with garlic and orange zest, then packing it in fresh bay leaves and refrigerating for a few hours. Slow grill or roast with the bay and you get the soft, lovely tastes of the Mediterranean in high summer.

Another way to showcase fresh bay leaves is to cut two or three slits into a baking or yellow-skinned potato. Stuff in bay leaves, and as the potatoes bake the bay will flavor their flesh and scent the house to boot.

You can substitute fresh bay for dried in any recipe and the change will be subtle to amazing, depending on the dish. The simpler the dish, the more the bay will shine. Put a bay leaf in custard cups, then pour in the custard for baking.

Fresh bay leaves are quite different from the dried ones found on grocery shelves. There are two kinds of bay: bay laurel from the tree Laurus nobilis; and California bay, which is a totally unrelated plant. The two have a similar scent, but California bay is much stronger. Some people believe it can't be substituted in equal amounts for bay laurel in recipes. I think it depends upon what flavors you want.

When recipes call for "bay leaves," they are requesting the leaves of the bay laurel. Confusing? Luckily, their leaves are quite different. California bay leaves are long and slim, almost sagelike in appearance and color, while bay laurel leaves are glossy and oval-shaped, often with rippled edges.

Lynne Rossetto Kasper hosts "The Splendid Table," American Public Media's weekly national show. The program airs at 2 p.m. Sunday on KUOW-FM (94.9). Contact Kasper at www.splendidtable.org.